Malden update and Franklin Covey 2PPD attempt #2

Here's an update on how I'm using my new personal Malden Filofax I got last weekend (which you can read more about here).

I stopped using it as a wallet because it was just too fiddly. I've tried using my Filofax as my wallet in the past and had the same issue so I wasn't entirely surprised. So, I went back to my normal wallet.

I love having a Filofax as my Information book, but it and my large day per page planner in my bag at the same time was too much so I had to choose only one of them.

Since I had just shelled out some serious cash on the Malden a few days ago, I wasn't ready to abandon it already. And anyway, it was nice to have my notes, maps, financial stuff and everything all together in one book.

So I decided to revisit an experiment I did a couple of months ago with Franklin Covey Two Pages Per Day inserts. At the time it failed quickly and now I realize why: I wasn't using my weekly planner with it!  Well DUH!!  I absolutely must use my weekly and daily together. So I thought it was worth trying the FC 2PPD again.

Here are the FC 2PPD pages in my Malden, and even though they stick out they're much better than they were in my Finsbury.

The Malden's strap goes out so the tabs aren't crushed.

I have two months of 2PPD and 12 months of monthly in here. Below you can see how much wider the FC pages are than the Filofax ones. I can't put the FC pages too far toward the back of the binder or else my pen won't fit.

With the diary pages and all the other stuff I like to keep in my Filofax it's still a very reasonable thickness.

I absolutely love this layout with my schedule vertically, a separate space for to-dos, the Daily Tracker where I record expenses, and the entire opposite page for notes.

What's even better is, if I ever need more space on a particular day for notes or information, I can just pop in an extra page. I find myself writing more on these daily pages than I do in a bound book because I'm never worried about filling up the page.

I love this so much! So then why does it make me so nervous?? For some reason I'm still craving the permanence of a bound book, even though I know that no bound book could ever compare to the flexibility and awesome layout of this.

Patty's recent post showing her archived FC pages gives me loads of hope that if I'm diligent about archiving and don't shuffle my pages around too much, I could achieve a similar level of archival permanence with these looseleaf pages as I would get from a bound book. Plus I absolutely love the FC monthly index pages that Patty shows in her post, which my FC pages also have. I'm definitely going to utilize those for easy reference.

So the reality here is, these 2 pages per day inserts in my Filofax could collectively be a combination of my two biggest planner fantasies: daily pages holding all my life's details and my Filofax being my long-term life companion!

And yet, despite the fact that I've searched far and wide for the "perfect" day per page bound book and not found it, I still wish I could manage to find a bound daily book that would hold everything I want to write each day and still be a portable size book.

Would somebody talk some sense into me and convince me the FC 2PPDs in the Malden is the answer I've been searching for??

Philofaxy Edinburgh meetup, and my journey to Malden

This is a story of my journey not only to Edinburgh, but to the Malden!

Saturday was the Philofaxy Edinburgh meetup, which I was very excited to attend! Almost exactly two years ago, I was booked to go to the London Philofaxy meetup but the morning of I had to cancel because everyone in my family was ill and I just couldn't go. So I was especially glad to be able to go to this one!

I took the train down from Aberdeen, and settled myself in for a quiet, scenic 2 hour 40 minute ride. At the next stop, a bunch of guys in kilts piled on. I thought to myself, cool. Dudes in kilts. I love Scotland.

Then they started cracking open beers. At 8:30 in the morning. I looked above their seats to see their reservations and noticed they too were going to Edinburgh. I thought, this is going to be a long ride if these guys get drunk and disorderly.

Then at the next stop, a bunch more guys got on. There were more men in kilts, little boys with their dads, and soon it was standing room only in the car. Everyone was in a great mood, swilling beer and handing out bacon rolls to all their friends.

I thought, what the heck is going on in Edinburgh today? I looked through the newspaper and discovered, ah ha. Scotland vs. South Africa rugby! No wonder.

Well it was one big party the whole way there! Kilts, beers, excited people chatting, and I have to admit when they busted out the bottle of Scotch I eyed it longingly. But I managed not to beg a dram and made it to Edinburgh sober.

Natalie had booked us into the Fruitmarket Gallery cafe, and it was the perfect place to linger over lunch and Filofaxes!

L to R: Steve, Morag, Margaret, Natalie and her husband Gavin

It was wonderful to see Steve again! I first met him in person in London 2 1/2 years ago, and of course have kept up via email, Skype and the blog so it was great to catch up in person with a great friend.

I enjoyed meeting everyone else for the first time in person after "seeing" them around online. We had the usual chat about Filofaxes and planners.

Below is the Tower of Power! There were several A5 zipped Holborns, an A5 Kendal, Steve's A5 and personal Maldens, the A5 Boston I brought (review coming next week on Philofaxy), several vintage binders, Steve's Mini, Margaret's Classic and Morag's stuffed pocket Chameleon she uses as a wallet.

The Leaning Tower O' Filofaxes

We had a great time looking through each other's Filofaxes. Gavin very kindly let me look through his A5 Holborn zip and let me interrogate him about how he uses his diary pages in it. 

I had gone to the meetup planning to buy a compact Pennybridge in purple. I decided I wanted to try combining my wallet with rings to hold my contacts, shopping lists, notes and whatever else. I thought the Pennybridge would be perfect for this. The purple PU material looked very soft online and the price was affordable.

Then I saw this:

Me with Steve's personal Malden in ochre

I've had my eye on the ochre Malden since I first saw one in the Filofax shop in London 2 1/2 years ago. I like the rustic look. I really like that scratches on the cover usually buff out, and just add character.

We went to The Pen Shop at Jenners (who I had forewarned that a gaggle of Filofax geeks was heading their way that afternoon) and they were very nice and let us paw through their entire stock of Filofax binders.

I found a Pennybridge compact in red, but not in purple. At first I was disappointed, but then was actually glad they didn't have a purple one, because I would have bought it without thinking about it. As it turned out, the cover wasn't as smooth as it looked online. Steve showed me the layout, which is nearly identical to his compact Malden (which wasn't with him that day) and pointed out the pros and cons of the zip compact. I realized the zip probably would not accommodate everything I wanted to put on the rings with all my cards in the pockets. So, no Pennybridge for me.

But I wanted to see an ochre Malden, so I looked through their display. They had a Vintage Pink Malden on sale, but no Ochre. Behind the display models were boxes of additional stock. I saw a Malden box, but no it was another Vintage Pink. I kept digging around and lo and behold I found a Personal Ochre Malden! I couldn't help feeling it was meant just for me!

I carried it around with me while making my decision. It was more money than I had intended to spend that day, but The Pen Shop gave our group a discount on purchases so it ended up being a great price for a Malden. I examined the rings carefully and found to my relief there were no problems with gapping or misalignment. It was the binder I've been longing for these two and a half years!

Should I? Shouldn't I?

After an agonizing decision-making process, I decided I would hate myself if I passed by the opportunity to own this binder! You can see lots of photos of it in my post here.

Here's Steve with a Mont Blanc organizer we couldn't help wanting to check out. It was really classy looking, very good quality with a huge pen loop to hold a full size Mont Blanc pen. The pen loop itself was very long to protect the finish on your pen.

Steve really wants that Mont Blanc! Michael was entertained by our goading.

I tried to convince Steve he needed to purchase this one but when he looked at the price tag he said, "Blimey, £320?? For that amount of money I could get a Temperley!  Well, nearly." (Ok he didn't actually say that at all, I completely made that up!)

After The Pen Shop we made our way through Christmas-shopping crowds and drizzles of snow to Paperchase and had fun looking at their selection. Before long it was time to head back to the trains and so we made our goodbyes. We are hoping to do another Scotland meetup in late spring or early summer if anyone is interested!

I had a quiet, no-kilts train ride back, and brought my Malden to his new home!

Many thanks to everyone who journeyed to Edinburgh that day, especially to Steve who had a long and difficult journey to get there! It was great seeing you all and I had a wonderful day!

I'm finally a member of the Malden club!

Yesterday I went to the Philofaxy meetup in Edinburgh, which was so much fun!  I did a separate post on it, but meanwhile I couldn't wait to show you my new Personal Ochre Malden!  Woo hoo!!

I've been looking at these since I first saw one in London when I was there 2 1/2 years ago. I liked Steve's so much at lunch I decided I really needed to get one. At The Pen Shop I dug around behind their main stock searching for an ochre Malden and lo and behold I found one!  I couldn't help feeling it was meant for me.

But this morning as I was loading it up I discovered, much to my astonishment, not only does it not lie flat but it doesn't even stay open by itself! Here it is in the process of closing on its own:

If I have pages to the left, it stays open but definitely not flat:

I wondered what the heck was up, because I've heard so much about the Malden's legendary flatability. Upon further inspection, I discovered there's some kind of reinforcing material around the spine between the leather layers. I can't tell if it's plastic or some kind of cardboard, but it makes a kind of crunching noise when I forcibly open the binder out flat. Below you can see where the cover bends at the edge of this reinforcing material inside the binder:

Here's the front cover:

And here's the back. Unfortunately the edge of the plastic or whatever is right where the front and back full-length pocket slits are, making it difficult to get things in and out of those pockets.

Well dang it. While I was at the store I examined the rings so much to make sure they didn't gap I didn't even notice the stiffness around the spine!  Maybe it's for the best, because I think a totally floppy cover might be too floppy? Oh well it's mine now, and aside from the stiffness I love it.

The only other issue I noticed was when I first put my pen into the leather non-elasticated pen loop, a piece of the leather from inside the loop came out the bottom of the pen loop. I pushed my pen back up from the other direction in the pen loop to stuff that scrap of leather back in, then once the loop was opened up it was fine and I can get my pen in and out of there without the scrap sticking out anymore. The leather loop holds a relatively thin pen. (I told my husband the moment a Filofax has a pen in its loop is like the moment it actually comes to life. It's ready to write in and use!)

I'm using it as a wallet with my payment cards in the front card slots and all my loyalty cards, library card etc. in business card holders at the back. I love that my phone fits into the back pocket:

Here are my tabs:

The Malden came with A-Z tabs, which I took out to save space. It also came with four blank tabbed dividers, which I took out and put in the tabbed dividers from my other Filofax which I already had set up so I just stuck them in there.

I have month on two pages calendars and a 4-year pull-out planner, financial stuff with the calculator on the rings,

an Information section with maps of Scotland and Edinburgh (which would have been handy to have with me yesterday!)

There's still tons of room left on the rings so if I wanted to add more pages there would be plenty of room.

Today's the first day I'm using it as a combined wallet + info book, and so far so good.  I keep my coins and bills in a separate coin purse so the Malden has only cards in it.

It feels good to have a Filofax as an information-on-the-go book again!  And I do love the leather of the ochre Malden. It already had a couple of scratches on the cover around the spine when I got it, so I don't have to worry about messing up a perfect cover. Plus the ochre leather has an antiqued look that I love, and any scratches or anything really would just add to the character of the book, making it look used and well-loved.

Does anyone else have a Malden with the stiffness issues of this one? If so, were you able to get it to lie flat eventually?

**Update June 2013: Eventually I realized there wasn't anything sandwiched between the leather after all. The hardness was the actual leather on the inside of the spine next to the rings. That leather was so hard it cracked and crunched when I bent it to try to get the binder to lay flat. When I held the binder in my hands I could feel the hardness around the spine and the distinct line of it through the cover. I did the Nivea treatment on it and although it made the leather look better (not so dry), it didn't penetrate to soften that piece of leather.

I continued to be so disappointed that this binder wasn't soft and buttery like I had expected a Malden to be. I never got over it and just never bonded with this Malden . So, I sold it to someone who I hope will love it like it deserves to be!